Pornhub Was Infected With a Virus—Here's How to Tell if You Have It

The site is clean now, but it carried the disease for a while

Pornhub is clean again after a nasty brush with a digital disease earlier this month.

On Wednesday, Proofpoint, a cybersecurity research firm, announced it had discovered a large-scale chain of malware on Pornhub that tricked users into downloading a virus known as Kovter by presenting them with a fake browser update prompt.

The malware abused Traffic Junky, a digital advertising service that Pornhub uses to display ads on its site, and presented users with a fake prompt to update their Google Chrome browser or other software, like Adobe Flash Player. When users went to download that file, they unwittingly downloaded malware. As soon as Proofpoint discovered the virus at the beginning of October, the firm notified Pornhub and Traffic Junky, whom the researchers noted were quick to snuff out the problem.

"As originally reported by Proofpoint, Pornhub acted swiftly to remove the infected content and eliminate the risk to users who may be tricked in installing malicious updates," Pornhub said in a statement.

Still, if you're a regular Pornhub user—and let's be real, most of us are—there's a chance you got suckered into downloading Kovter. Kovter isn't necessarily going to ruin your life, but it's a very annoying thing to have on your computer.

Patrick Wheeler, director of Threat Intelligence for Proofpoint, told Men's Health in an email that once downloaded, the malware launches invisible sessions of your web browser and clicks on ads. Wheeler said all those invisible sessions can cause sluggish web browsing and slow down your computer overall, and jam up your internet bandwidth.

Does This Only Happen in Porno?

"Both ad networks and the websites that display the ads generally work hard to limit this kind of activity, but the interactions are largely automated," Wheeler told Men's Health. "Cybercriminals tend to stay a few steps ahead of the good guys who work to keep online advertisements and websites safe. This problem is quite pervasive and definitely not limited to pornographic sites."

The problem is, it's not exactly easy to get rid of once you've got it. Wheeler said Kovter is "notoriously difficult to detect." Some consumer antivirus software will catch it, but he recommended taking your computer to an IT professional for a thorough scan if you think you might have caught the bug from Pornhub. Otherwise, if you're committed to going it alone, Wheeler said this Bleeping Computer guide is a pretty good breakdown on how to remove it, although it's pretty technical. (While you're studying, check out our online course on how to please a woman.)

This particular chain of malware has been active for over a year, Wheeler said. There's no telling which website was the first to get it, but he said Proofpoint estimates the problem is "quite widespread" and effects millions of internet users.

Cory Price, Pornhub's VP, pointed out that Pornhub sponsors "bug bounty" programs that pay hackers a cash prize for finding bugs, exploits, or viruses on their systems and turning them over to the site to fix, and the whole site runs on HTTPS, the secure version of basic web protocol.

It used to be a cliche that online porn was the best way to get computer viruses. While that's no longer statistically true, any site online running an ad network could be vulnerable to a Kovtar-style attack. Suddenly, that old box of magazines under the bed doesn't look so bad.

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